One common situation I see with many clients I interact with is that their SharePoint sites are loaded down with wordiness. It's my opinion that sites that are overly wordy can kill usability fast, and it seems to me that SharePoint lends itself easily to be an extremely wordy application. This to me is the biggest issue that faces the SharePoint user interface (UI). Why don't people like SharePoint's UI? Too Wordy!

When you start dragging those ListViewWebParts on your pages, you quickly become a very textual site. For example, a few months ago I wrote a blog post about implementing a better Announcements web part because the one that comes out of box is SOOOO wordy and takes up a ton of real estate. See below:

Out of box look and feel:

Customized Look and Feel:

I think the difference is striking. The out of box one is so wordy, you don't know where to start, whereas the bottom is clear and articulate, allowing for the user to quickly scan through the information. Most of the out of box SharePoint web parts are overly wordy like this in my opinion, that is why I suggest you don't clutter your pages with too many web parts! This is especially true for things like calendars, documents, and discussion boards. As soon as you start dropping those on the page, end users are lost in a wordy mess and will have a harder time finding information. The trick is that you NEED to make it EASY for them to find stuff.

Instead, I suggest a approach that leverages the left navigation to drive users to content, especially for calendars, documents, and discussion boards and other built in lists/libraries. Those three especially should never be on main landing pages. Rather, link the user straight to the library or list itself. The user is less likely to glaze over information because there's only one type of information on the page and that makes it easier to know what they are looking at.

Another big area that people need to pay attention to is using graphics, not words, to drive users to the main areas of the site. Like I said earlier, people glaze over text and it is rarely ever even read! So don't rely on it! However, people's eyes connect well with graphics, which draw their attention much more easily. Use graphics, not words to drive navigation and highlight main areas/features of your sites.

The image below features a site I put together for a company (logo and name of company removed) that uses graphics to help drive end users to the main areas of the site. Rather than cram a ton of info on one page, I'm using the left nav to link to all the activities and content, as well as using graphics in the main area to call out "featured activities". This is a much more usable approach because users are drawn to the graphics to tell them what they can do, and are not bogged down with a wordy page that they won't read (in which case they'll feel lost and get mad).

(click image for full size)

With just a few seconds of looking, a user can quickly identify the value of the site and what they can do with it. If you have an overly wordy and overly crowded SharePoint site, it won't be used or adopted, and it will leave a bad taste in your end user's mouths. This is because they can't quickly find what they want and they give up. Do you remember what first attracted people to Google, amidst notable competition? Less is more.

I believe the same is true for your SharePoint sites. However, that is "just my 2 cents" J.

Phil